I was approached by a CPA I have been working with. He is interested in having me join his firm with the view of me taking it over when he retires. I am going to meet with him in a couple of weeks to discuss the possibility of this taking place soon. I am pretty psyched about the offer!

Labels: CPA

Lucy interviewed me for her blog in lieu of doing my meme. You may find it interesting to read my interview and while you are at it, check out Lucy's cool blog!

Labels: Interview

I have made no secret that I have an addictive personality. Just look into my closet to bear the truth of that out. Ebay, Amazon, B&N--I am always cruising for bargains, but my shopping addiction cannot come close to comparing to my addiction to blogging. I walk around mentally recording my next blog entries. I hope for bad dates so I will have a wealth of material. I am joined at the hip with my laptop--my portal to the blog world. I spend hours lurking on blog sites, I pore over news stories for nuggets to incorporate into my blog.

The mystique of blogging is that the story I think will wow my readers may often go unnoticed or uncommented on and the story I slam together and think is uninteresting gets mega hits. Go figure! It is definitely a mystery to me, but that keeps me going with my blog entries whether I think they are interesting or not.

Labels: mystique

So Lovah and I were hanging out several weekends ago. I hopped out of bed and declared it was a great morning for IHOP. Lovah pointed out that I should probably study for the biology clep first and I saw the logic of getting that out of the way so I agreed to wait. As I was studying, visions of enchiladas started to fill my head and I asked him where his favorite Mexican restaurant was. He looked at me confused and said "I thought you wanted to go to IHOP?" I did, but then tacos and enchiladas were dancing around and tormenting my poor starving self. "I do because a nice stack of 'cakes sound good with eggs over easy, BUT so do enchiladas."

A little bit later I asked where a nice non-chain Italian restaurant was because I was thinking a nice fettuccine alfredo or linguine with clam sauce would be divine. He was confused and perhaps a bit exasperated with my loosey-goosey ways. I explained to him that I would know where I wanted to eat by the time we hit his door to leave. I like choices! I change my mind a lot and when it comes to food it depends on my mood. He definitely does not approach things in the same manner as I do and it makes for an interesting discussion.

Anyway, being a dutiful boyfriend (for a brief blip in time), he hauled out the phonebook and found a delightful Italian restaurant. He read the menu to me and I was really interested in a nice plate of pasta, crusty bread, a glass of vino....By the time we left, I decided as much as I was craving Italian food, my diet would be better served by going to Mexican. I don't overeat at Mexi restaurants and I lost the desire for a short stack (there was always Sunday for that).

Lovah has never had Brazilian food and we have,in this little southern backwater where I live, not one, not two, but FIVE Brazilian restaurants to choose from. So I guess I will drive him crazy while I decide which of the five I want to go to this weekend...one also has Greek food, another Italian, another Spanish. It is a nice mix and each has its pluses. He is going to think I lied because I told him we only had four Brazilian restaurants, but as I write this I remembered another one. I think we have more Brazilian restaurants than NYC. The owners are all friends (or former friends in some cases) and they settled in this area together years ago. Lucky us!

Poor Lovah! He likes life nice and orderly: the same-old, same-old. Me? I am like a pinball whizzing around, banging, clanging and making as many bells and whistles ring as possible. I have the attention span of a gnat and it makes for an interesting life for me. For the logic-bound person, I am a conundrum, a walking talking contradiction of choices, dreams, hopes. I hope I never change (don't think there is much worry about that!).

Labels: food, fun and confusion

This girl is smiling from ear to ear. I got my fill of dancing (not really) and had a great weekend so far. My body is so damn sore though! I need a massage.

The social was the best one we have attended so far. I made some new friends, danced with several of the instructors, avoided the really awful male student who makes up dances, drank lots of wine (Jadey drove us to the hotel afterward), and laughed a lot. My instructor, Nicky, cracked me up especially--we were dancing the Argentine Tango. This means the upper half of our bodies are touching and so my twin gals were smushed into his chest and he looked down at them and back up into my eyes and told me he didn't know if he could handle all that cushioning! Isn't that funny? Or maybe not...I was drinking a lot. I was also wearing a strapless bra--not a good idea when you are a G cup and dancing I found out--I kept popping out of my bra, but not out of my halter top thankfully. That would have been funny too! Since I was so tipsy we went to IHOP afterwards to sober me up a bit. I was stumbling and laughing and laughing and laughing. I am one happy drunk.

This morning I woke up fresh & perky and went off to have two 1-hour dance lessons. Nicky put me through my paces, but when we were done at 12:30 today, I was dancing better than ever. But I have to work on the body mechanics of the dances which means working muscles that have not been used in sooooo long. Yikes! Walking up my three flights of steps when I got home in platform shoes and dragging my luggage--I thought I was going to just tip over in a heap! Instead, I have been sitting on my couch for several hours and relaxing. I really should be studying or doing taxes, but no, sitting on my ass! Cruising the internet, reading blogs, answering emails, downloading virus protection, watching my cat act like she is on crack.

Labels: boobs, dancing, Tango

That damn Utenzi tagged me for a meme.

Here goes, first with the rules and then with the answers and THEN with the tags.

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


Leigh is my middle name:

Laptop junky. I seriously have a hard time being parted from my laptop. I get all shaky if it is a long absence.

Essentials in life for me include mani/pedis, massages, dance, pizza, mojitos, and sex...not in that order of course

Independence comes naturally to me.

Going on a cruise around the world when I make my fortune.

Happy. I am a happy person and I like to hang with other happy people.

I can't choose a person for each letter of my name to complete this as I don't think that many people read my blog actually. I do choose:

Smug--you need to be initiated into the meme world
Roselle--it will definitely be interesting
Evercurious--cause you are sooo sweet
Dave--you dirty rat....you need to start blogging again
Lucy--nothing like a comedian's spin on a meme

Wow! I did come up with 5 names--lets see if you guys do it.

Labels: meme

YES! I am finally going dancing tonight after what has seemed like an interminable amount of time. Jade and I are headed for our favorite dance studio in Charlotte for the social tonight and then tomorrow I have two dance lessons scheduled. I am so excited that I am going to have a hard time getting through the day!

I really need this because this week has been gruesome. Yesterday in my role as HR Manager I had to facilitate a termination and that, my friends, is beyond stressful. Especially so when the person you are firing is a whack-job.

Maybe I exaggerate a bit about the week being gruesome in totality. I have been very busy handling my marketing action items to launch the new business:
1. Design new letterhead & have it printed. Check.
2. Write a marketing letter. Check.
3. Do additional research on some new services we are adding. Check.
4. Set up the website. Check.
5. Research alternative advertising. Check.
6. Design promotional brochure....run out of steam!

So my next action items are to have some fun, do something I love and get my creativity recharged. The dancing should be the ticket. Unfortunately, since I am driving, I won't be able to get tipsy at the social (dammit!). Busy weekend after all the dancing though: 4 tax returns and study for my biology clep next Friday. I think I will actually do better than I originally thought if my prelim testing is anything to go by.

So, ta dahlings! Have a great weekend! I hope to gather some amusing stories of my single-gal life for ya'll over the weekend. It has been quite the dry spell lately.

Labels: dancing, weekend

Hanging out with the Bride (aka Smug) is proving to be inspirational in an odd sort of way. I trailed behind her this afternoon with her mother and sister as her two wedding photographers dragged us all over the city for some really cool bridal pictures. I mentioned that I had seen an article about brides "trashing" their wedding gowns after the wedding. It seems to be the "thing" to do right now and I think it is really cool. Realistically, a bride is not likely to wear her gown again and the creative photos that can be shot are incredible. Check out the Trash the Dress website and see for yourself.

The photographers were really cool and they just happen to know the photographer that took the original photos that kicked off the craze. They said they would love to do some photos like that, but they have not met a bride who was willing to 'trash the dress". I piped up and said, I am getting a divorce and I still have my wedding gown...I am perfectly willing to volunteer to pose in it...we could call the series a Celebration of Divorce. Just chalk it up to another idea spawned from my circumstances as the Anti-Bride. I think it would be a fabulous way to celebrate freedom from a bad marriage.

Of course, another off-shoot of this would be a "trash the dress" for the bridesmaids. The average bridesmaid gown is heinous and not likely to be seen again...hmmm ideas just keep coming.

Labels: anti-bride, bride, trash the dress

Jade and I went out for our post-exercise dinner last night. We were both in serious need of nourishment as she led the class with some very grueling ab work. We headed to a steakhouse for a ribeye (Jade), half rack of ribs (me) and some cool and refreshing mojitos.

We were sipping on our mojitos when the waiter came to our table with another round. Our confusion was plain for him to see since we did not order another round so he explained that some gentlemen at the bar sent them over. Naturally, I was interested in what the gents looked like, but Jade, being the practical soul, told the waiter to put the drinks down. She was not about to turn away two perfectly good mojitos. I scanned the bar for the faces of the two men I thought sent the mojitos. There was the group of three business men, but their backs were turned from us. Several college-aged guys were knocking back a few beers and seemed wrapped up in the baseball game on the telly. Three sets of couples were interspersed amongst the group. Ah! wait...two biker dudes, complete with black leather, red bandanas, an earring winking in an ear of one, were blatantly staring in our direction. I asked the waiter if they were the ones and he said yes. I told Jade about our admirers. I can't recall this ever happening to me so I was not sure of the etiquette. I mean, if you accept the drinks as we had, what is our obligation? Do we send a round to them? Invite them to join us? Blow a kiss? Ignore them? Neither of us was interested so Jade decided we would ignore them. They stared for a bit longer, but then got the message and went back to their own drinks.

Has this ever happened to you? What did you do?

Labels: Cliches, mojitos

I have been yearning to blog all weekend, but a suitable topic has continually evaded me. I find that sooo frustrating. I could talk about this vision I had. Seriously, I was in yoga last week and during the last part where we are in corpse pose, I had a flash of me in a foreign country working. That got me thinking...hmmmm-what would it be like to travel abroad and work there for a year? I love to travel. The gypsy spirit is genetic. My mom was never really into settling down even though we did not move around a lot as a child. A single mom with 5 kids would definitely put a damper on that, but she constantly yearned to travel and we did a lot of that.

Mom would take all of us (except my older brother) on a vacation each year. We would go to Cherokee, NC or Myrtle Beach, SC. It was always an adventure as we knew something would go wrong. One time, our "big mac" luggage holder on top of the car flew open and our stuff blew all over the road. We were able to retrieve it without anyone getting run over. I don't recall one camping trip where the tent did not leak--unfortunately, all of our trips involved a tent.

When we would go to Myrtle Beach, mom would take us to the outlets for our school clothes shopping. This was back when outlets=saving money. One time we bought so much stuff that we barely had room for all of us in the VW Rabbit we came in. We all had to sit on things--luggage, pillows, towels. I think we even strapped the cooler onto the bumper of that car.

Mom would pick out the dumpiest looking restaurant to eat at. She had a knack for finding great restaurants this way. One such treasure was Johnny Lockhart's in the Norfolk/Virgina Beach area. It was a little hole in the wall with great seafood. One time we went straight from the beach. We had not been there in years. We walked in and we were greeted by a maitre'd in tuxedo. It had gone from a dive to fine dining and we were out of place. Mom held her ground and our ragtag bunch was escorted past finely dressed diners into a private room by the kitchen. I think we had the best table in the place and the waiter loved how fun we were so we got great service.

Last night I dreamed that mom showed up on my doorstep. We laughed, we talked, we hugged. She looked healthy and happy and she was with my niece Carmen--the granddaughter she did not get to meet. I hated to wake up from that dream because it has been 7 years since I have seen mom alive and longer than that since I saw her that happy (if I ever did). Mom's legacy lives on in each of her kids because we all have that gypsy spirit and I believe I see glimpses of it in each of her two granddaughters as well.

Labels: Gypsy

Smug aka my best friend finally decided to join the blogger ranks. I think she is getting addicted to the healing properties of blogging. I guess she will have to comment on whether that is true or not.

I just know that when I ask her anything about the wedding (40 something days away) that her face lights up like a Christmas tree. I can't remember if I felt like that when I was getting married. I believe I did have that pre-wedding glow, but too much has passed since then to erase the memories of those particular feelings. I am a bit envious of her youthful optimism and obvious "in love" demeanor. I think sometimes that I am too burnt around the edges to ever feel that gooey love stuff and I hate that. I have always been such a romantic and to hear me talk now you would never believe it.

I was reading an article in Marie Claire today called "I, Fembot" and it could have been written about me. It discusses "a new breed of steely female"--one that does not cry easily and cringes at the thought of touchy-feely intimacy. I found one example resonated with me: "Lori had separated from her husband, a lead weight of a guy whom she had worked relentlessly to please. She decided it was time to focus on pleasing herself. 'When you go through a separation, you learn that you have to take care of yourself. There's a hardening, for better or for worse.'" While I do admit that I have a need for a lot of personal space, I hope that one day I will heal enough to feel the incredible sensation of falling and being in love.

When I look at Smug trying on her wedding gown, it gives me hope. When I apply her make-up for her bridal portrait and see that beautiful smile and inner glow outshine any Lancome product I could apply, I feel my heart twitch a little bit. Isn't she just lovely?

Labels: anti-bride, bride, Ryan, Smug

I had wanted to be a ballerina since I was a tot. I used to pore longingly over pictures of fairy princess ballet dresses and set my sights on a beautiful teal one with lots of tulle and sparkle. A dream that did not come true. Fast forward to adulthood and I would muse about meeting the man of my dreams and the both of us enrolling in Tango lessons. This notion was thwarted too, but I am grateful in a strange way.

I was dragged (yes, dragged!) to a salsa club one night. I had on the wrong shoes and I had only half-heartedly participated in a lesson beforehand. I felt like a fish out of water with all the skilled dancers at that club. I ended up being a wallflower for most of the evening until Javier came along. He had the sexy smoldering Latin look that sends tingles down my spine. He took pity on the lil ole white girl leaning against the wall gazing longingly at the dancers and asked me to dance. I went a bit reluctantly, but he was patient with me and coaxed me around the outdoor dance floor, which was less crowded. Then he kissed me! That is a story for another day, however.

I was hooked on salsa dancing and found a dance instructor close to home. I did not like his arrogant style, but I was determined. I also took private coachings and group classes whenever I could. Eventually, I decided to find a new dance teacher and I found Jay. Jay introduced me to the world of ballroom dance. I grew to love the sensuous Tango, the sexy Rumba, the flirty Cha-Cha-Cha, and the waltz, foxtrot, and bolero. My two left feet disappeared on the floor and I could dance reasonably well.

I am a perfectionist and reasonably well is just not good enough for me. So I moved on to an even better dance instructor and I have been working on more than the technical aspects of dance...I have been working on getting the graceful lines that characterize a beautiful dancer. I decided to expand into ballet and modern dance to achieve my aims with these core dance classes. Sammi is my instructor for these classes and she is phenomenal! I love the routines she puts together for me to learn, but most days I feel like an elephant lumbering around on the floor in the shadow of her graceful twirls and pirouettes across the floor. I just keep on plugging away though, because I know me dance pretty one day.

Labels: Ballet, dancing, Javier, Modern Dance, Rumba, Salsa, Tango

It all started in homeroom with a guy named Bud. He decided that these two wild girls needed suitable nicknames so he started calling them Tasty Tracey & Sexy Sassy. To look at this picture you would never guess that we were anywhere close to being tasty or sexy, but the names stuck all through high school right up to the reunion this past weekend.

I did not make it to my 21st (yeah, weird I know) high school reunion, but I did want to reconnect with Tracey so I emailed her and we met for dinner tonight. We have not seen each other since we were 19. I was not sure what to expect while I waited for her and then she came strolling up: with spikey short hair, funky jewelry and classy clothes. Yup! Some things never change despite a decade or two. We laughed at the similar hair cuts and styles. We slid comfortably into conversation and spent several delightful hours catching up. She gave me the gossip on the reunion too.

We had a good laugh over the Tasty & Sexy nicknames and how we never did the party scene during high school. In fact, we were very conservative and low key when it came to social activities, but to hear the guys at school (still) talk about it we were at every party dancing on a table and twirling our bras over our heads. We still cannot figure out how this myth came into being because we did not attend a single party nor did we tell people we were party-goers. I guess we will remain a legend in someone's mind...okay...Paul, Bud, Pete, Randy....the list goes on.

When we exhausted those topics, she dipped into the subject of religion. Her husband is a youth minister and she helps him. I just didn't have the heart to tell her that I am agnostic now. I have studied the Bible extensively in the past so I was able to "talk the talk" with her. I even managed to deflect the question of whether I have accepted Christ into my heart. I respect the fact that she is a very spiritual person in her own way and I think she would do the same for me, but I am so burnt out on the whole religion thingy that I just took the easy way out.

We are going to try to meet once a month for dinner and I hope we stick to it. She was a great friend in school and I felt that old familiar comfortable kindred spiritedness with her still.

Here is a blast from the past:
Sassy Poses for the yearbook
Sassy Senior Portrait

Tracey

Labels: Class Reunion, Sexy Sassy, Tasty Tracey

Well, I wrote up a story, but it is wayyyy too boring to post. I thought I would just show a few pictures and let ya'll enjoy a slide show instead of regale you with tales of a screaming twin, a treacherous drive through NJ during a bad storm that included flooding, downed powerlines, and a lost Sassy. Then there was my Aunt Rose (who is divorced from my Uncle Bob) who came over to see me and proceeded to dig on my uncle every chance she got ala the typical Italian Jersey lady that she is. It was great seeing my family and my uncle finally had an adult conversation with me (a first). I got to see my favorite cousins and that was the best part of the trip!

Labels: NJ, vacation